tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post2701877752874585582..comments2024-03-25T19:48:24.624+11:00Comments on Oz Conservative: Liberalism itself intolerant?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-34424610911484707192010-02-24T15:15:59.356+11:002010-02-24T15:15:59.356+11:00Affirmative Action Legislation is purely a Politic...Affirmative Action Legislation is purely a Political Class cause, it is overwhelming without any popular support, it flies directly in the face of the common understanding of merit as the sole arbiter of your right to a position. <br /><br />The slyness of the Political Class was to tack it to the back of what does have overwhelming support, No Discrimination Legislation, e.g. almost no one would support a job advert saying "No Black or Jews need apply"<br /><br />It is my belief that what is labeled as the conservative side of politics in Britain can find a gold mine of votes by splitting the two.<br /><br />Declaring that an elected Tory Government would outlaw all affirmative action programs while retaining anti discrimination legislation would have amazing benefits. It would set the Tories up as serious about tackling Political Correctness while only promising one easy delivery , the MSN could be mauled if they attacked: <br /><br />Tory Rep: "I think Mr "MSN Reporter" that most people would agree with me that talent alone is what counts in Britain and where 2 people are of equal talent nothing could be less fair than letting one person get the job on the basis of their Gender or Race."<br /><br />MSN Reporter: "But surely Women and [Insert Race] are under represented in some areas.<br /><br />Tory Rep: "We are aware of that it is why we have not removed our educational programs for [Insert Race]" they are still up and running, but Mr MSN you do understand that when people look at top positions in say the British Police and see women getting positions, they think they only got them because they were women and were not really the best candidate. Under our Tory policy the British public can be assured they were the top candidate to serve the British people who pay their wages"<br /><br />The Tories live in a "First Past Post" and "No Compulsory Voting" environment they need people to vote for them direct. <br /><br />I have serious reservation about the BNP in the UK (I could not bring myself to vote for them) but it needs to be said they are the only party that are not heavily Political Class and I think most of their voter have very serious reservations with them also but they are the only major non Political Class party on offer.<br /><br />It is said the BNP has about 2 Million voters and I would put a lot as finding the BNP pretty offensive but the only non Political Class vote on offer.<br /><br />A Conservative Party policy against Affirmative Action should be considered and coupled with some genuine help to low income families to support children they could take a lot of BNP votes into the Tories without compromising Tory policy at all <br /><br />I also suspect that once Affirmative Action is outlawed no one will ever try to make it policy again.Meerkatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-47429842730182659262010-02-24T13:31:36.644+11:002010-02-24T13:31:36.644+11:00Mark Richardson: "Jenkins does recognise that...Mark Richardson: "<i>Jenkins does recognise that liberalism has become intolerant, but his alternative is merely that we non-liberals be granted 'some communal space'.</i>"<br /><br />Traditionalists are to be reduced to living in cultural Bantustans. Amazing that even a heretical liberal will nevertheless favour creating an apartheid system where we're <i>tolerated</i> but never treated as equals. It is his protestation against liberal fascism (see Goldberg) that are "<i>hollow</i>".Kilroynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-60689885661103157192010-02-24T12:24:00.394+11:002010-02-24T12:24:00.394+11:00This equality bill is all well and good but it wor...This equality bill is all well and good but it works on the assumption that white people are the majority and non-whites are the minority. Certainly in parts of the country that isn't the case. So what are we left with? The permissibility to discriminate in favour of non-whites, by white or non-white employers, but that benefit being extending to nobody else?Jesse_7https://www.blogger.com/profile/08732509086253241748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-44480700217543528122010-02-24T07:50:56.346+11:002010-02-24T07:50:56.346+11:00Rob, thanks. Looks like another significant admiss...Rob, thanks. Looks like another significant admission from a liberal.Mark Richardsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15961688379656119701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-60183470777770118542010-02-24T04:04:07.089+11:002010-02-24T04:04:07.089+11:00This is the link to the description of the book by...This is the link to the description of the book by Steven D. Smith, "The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse":<br /><br />http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/SMIDIS.htmlRobnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-64090608186583070062010-02-24T03:47:29.084+11:002010-02-24T03:47:29.084+11:00OT, Mark, but Stanley Fish has an really good blog...OT, Mark, but Stanley Fish has an really good blog post today:<br /><br />http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/are-there-secular-reasons/<br /><br /><br />It's the comments by Steven Smith that are most acute: <br /><br />"But since secular men reject any source of knowledge apart from secular reason, and since they need normative notions in order to reach any policy decision, where do they get them? Says Smith: <br /><br /><br />". . . the secular vocabulary within which public discourse is constrained today is insufficient to convey our full set of normative convictions and commitments. We manage to debate normative matters anyway--but only by smuggling in notions that are formally inadmissible, and hence that cannot be openly acknowledged or adverted to.<br /><br />Fish continues:<br /><br />The notions we must smuggle in, according to Smith, include "notions about a purposive cosmos, or a teleological nature stocked with Aristotelian 'final causes' or a providential design," all banished from secular discourse because they stipulate truth and value in advance rather than waiting for them to be revealed by the outcomes of rational calculation. But if secular discourse needs notions like these to have a direction--to even get started--"we have little choice except to smuggle [them] into the conversations--to introduce them incognito under some sort of secular disguise."Robnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6832901.post-10998059696294527232010-02-24T01:08:41.282+11:002010-02-24T01:08:41.282+11:00Nor is the most significant reaction against liber...<i>Nor is the most significant reaction against liberalism a "know-nothing fundamentalism"</i><br /><br />Sure. So what do you know?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com